
Book i_h/^* 

Copyright N°_ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT; 




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_ SOUTH AMERICA 



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SOUTH AMERICA 



A MISSION FIELD 



By 
Bishop Thomas Benjamin Neely 




CINCINNATI: JENNINGS AND GRAHAM 
NEW YORK: EATO N AND MAINS 



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LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Cspies Received 

NOV 1? 1906 

Copyright Entry 
JS A XXcf, No, 
COPY B. « ' 



04°; 

cuss 



COPYRIGHT, 1906, BY 
JENNINGS AND GRAHAM. 






The Sunday-School Teacher 

of 

My Boyhood Days 

and 

My Long-Time Friend, 

MR. EDWARD PERRY, 

OF 

Philadelphia, 

This Book 

is 



PREFACE 

This little book treats of a subject of 
immediate and great importance — namely, 
South America, and, particularly, South 
America as a field for Christian Missions. 

The restricted limits placed upon us have 
compelled great condensation and have 
prevented the mention of various missionary 
workers whose services should not be for- 
gotten, and have also necessitated the omis- 
sion of various details we desired and hoped 
to embody in this production. 

We trust, however, that this concentrated 
study of the theme will be sufficient to give 
something more than a mere bird's-eye view 
of the field, and will create or strengthen in- 
terest in that great southland and in evan- 
gelical movements therein. 

Thomas B. Neexy. 
Buenos Aires, Argentina, 
June 12, 1906. 



CONTENTS 

Chapter Page 

I. South America, - - - g 

II. The People of South America, 18 

III. The Religion of South Amer- 

ica, 31 

IV. What Romanism has done for 

South America, - - 39 

V. South America as a Mission 

Field, 51 

VI. Protestant Missions in South 

America, - - - - 62 

VII. The Results, - - - - 73 

VIII. Present Needs, - 90 

IX. Whose Special Duty, - - 98 



South America 

A Mission Field 



CHAPTER I. 
South America. 

South America is not a country, but a 
vast continent containing many countries. 
It contains eleven nations, all of which are 
republics, and, besides, has three Guianas 
which belong to Great Britain, France, and 
Holland. Yet many persons persist in call- 
ing it a country, and refer to it as they 
would to Scotland or to Spain. 

Few realize the immense size of this 
southern continent, and yet it is almost 
as large as North America. North America 
has 7,100,000 square miles, while South 
America has 6,880,000 square miles, but the 
latter is quite as large for practical pur- 
9 



10 South America 

poses, because it has no land in frigid lati- 
tudes. 

The extent of particular countries in 
South America is usually surprising, even 
to intelligent world-students. A few in- 
stances will show the basis of their sur- 
prise. 

Thus Peru is nearly equal in area to all 
the United States, lying west of the Rocky 
Mountains; Argentina contains over 1,200,- 
000 square miles, and is nearly as large as 
twenty-nine Pennsylvanias or twenty-eight 
New Yorks, or twenty times the area of 
New England; while Brazil is larger than 
the entire United States of America from 
the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, and 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. 

Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay, ta- 
ken together, are equal to all the United 
States between the Alleghany Mountains 
and the Rocky Mountain Range. 

Chili is as long as about the distance from 
Portland, Maine, to San Francisco, or clear 
across the United States, and even the 
young Republic of Panama, which is re- 
garded as exceedingly small, is just about 
as large as two Switzerlands. 



South America 11 

Nature has made nearly everything in 
South America on a grand scale. 

It has one of the most marvelous moun- 
tain systems in the world. Roughly speak- 
ing, the Andes are about 4,400 miles in 
length. In the north this mountain sys- 
tem divides into three chains. Then run- 
ning to the south, it becomes two ranges, the 
eastern range being called Los Andes — The 
Andes — while the western chain is known 
by the general name, Las Cordilleras — The 
Cordilleras. About half way down the Ar- 
gentine line, the eastern range disappears, 
and the single chain remaining is called La 
Cordillera de los Andes — The Cordillera of 
the Andes, or the plural form Las Cordil- 
leras — The Cordilleras, being used, and also 
the singular form, The Cordillera. 

A considerable number of the mountain 
peaks in the Andes are volcanic cones, some 
of which are active volcanoes. Aconcagua, 
one of these peaks in Argentina, rises to a 
height of between twenty-three thousand 
and twenty- four thousand feet.* 

In the eastern section of South America, 
particularly in Eastern Brazil, there are 
lower mountain ranges. 

♦The calculations vary from 23,100 to 23,910 feet. 



12 South America 

Between the Andes in the west and these 
lower ranges in the east, there is a vast 
plain, or stretch of lowland, extending from 
north to south the entire length of the con- 
tinent. 

Beginning in the eastern part of Vene- 
zuela are the Llanos. Further south are the 
Campos of Brazil and Eastern Bolivia. 
Still farther south are the Pampas of Ar- 
gentina. 

The pampas greatly resemble the prairies 
of Illinois, though they are not so well wa- 
tered. The pampas generally have few 
trees, the llanos have some trees, but the 
selvas of the Amazon are great woodlands 
covering a vast stretch of country almost 
equal to the -entire United States east of 
the Rocky Mountains. There are also other 
densely wooded regions like the Matto 
Grosso>, in Central Brazil, and the Chaco, in 
Paraguay and Northern Argentina. 

Nearly all the great rivers of South Amer- 
ica rise in the snowy heights of the Andes, 
and flow through these vast lowlands into 
the Atlantic Ocean. 

In the north the chief river is the Ori- 
noco. Its direct length is 1,450 miles, and, 



South America 13 

taking in its tributaries, its navigable wa- 
ters measure at least 4,300 miles, and its 
volume of water is surpased by only three 
rivers in the whole Western Hemisphere — 
namely, the Amazon, La Plata, and the 
Mississippi. 

The Amazon, or the Rio de las Amazonas 
— the River of the Amazons — rises in the 
Cordilleras, not more than sixty miles from 
the Pacific, and flows nearly four thousand 
miles to the Atlantic. It is navigable nearly 
to the base of the Andes, and, in 1899, the 
United States gunboat Wilmington sailed 
from the mouth of the Amazon up to Iqui- 
tos, in Peru, a distance of nearly 2,400 miles. 

The Amazon system has at least 27,000 
miles of navigable waters, and some say al- 
most double that amount. The system 
drains 2,722,000 square miles, as against 
1,767,000 square miles of the Mississippi- 
Missouri system, giving nearly a million 
square miles in favor of the Amazon, while 
its maximum discharge is more than two 
and a half times that of the great Missis- 
sippi. 

The Rio de la Plata system comes next 
to that of the Amazon. Sebastian Cabot, 



14 South America 

who sailed far up these waters, gave the 
name Rio de la Plata, or Silver River, to 
a great stretch of water, but now the name 
is limited to something more than two hun- 
dred miles of water flowing between Argen- 
tina and Uruguay. At its mouth it is 175 
miles wide, at Montevideo it is sixty-two 
miles wide, and from Buenos Aires to Mon- 
tevideo, across the river, is about 125 
miles. 

At the upper part, where the name La 
Plata now begins, is the junction of the Uru- 
guay, coming from the northeast and the 
Parana, coming from the north, while, far 
to the north, the River Paraguay empties 
into the Parana. 

Some steamers sail up the Rio de la 
Plata, the Parana, and the Paraguay to Cuy- 
aba, in the heart of Southwestern Brazil, a 
distance of 2,360 miles above the city of 
Buenos Aires. That gives an idea of this 
immense water-course. 

The mean discharge of the Mississippi at 
New Orleans is 675,000 cubic feet per sec- 
ond, while the mean discharge of the Rio 
de la Plata is 953,000 cubic feet, which is 
an immensely greater volume of water. 



South America IS 

These great river systems make the in- 
terior of the continent very accessible, so 
that steamers may penetrate not only to 
the heart of the continent, but almost from 
ocean to ocean, or close to its western moun- 
tain wall. 

In South America there are many cli- 
mates — the tropical, subtropical, and tem- 
perate, with a little frigid weather at the 
extreme southern tip. There are the hot 
countries, but even in many tropical regions 
the temperature is greatly modified by ocean 
winds or by elevations of the land. Thus 
Quito, almost directly under the equator, 
has a very temperate climate. 

By nature South America is rich and 
varied beyond expression. Its mineral 
wealth is too great for computation. It may 
be said that gold is found in every country 
of South America. Silver is abundant in 
the western countries. For centuries Peru 
and Bolivia have been celebrated for their 
precious metals. From the silver mines of 
Potosi alone it is calculated that over 
$1,500,000,000 worth of this precious metal 
has been taken, and yet Bolivia is still so 
rich in the precious metals that it has been 



16 South America 

spoken of as a table of silver with legs of 
gold. 

Iron, copper, lead, and other metals are 
found in various countries. Coal is abund- 
ant in Chili, and is found in other parts of 
the continent. Petroleum is found in Peru, 
while the deserts of Chili, which were sup- 
posed to be worthless, contain nitrates more 
valuable than any or all the precious metals 
that country is supposed to contain. 

The fertility of the soil in various sec- 
tions of the continent is inexpressibly great. 
Scarcely any other part of the world can 
Compare with South America in the ex- 
tent, vigor, and variety of its forests. The 
india-rubber trees are sources of great 
wealth. So are the cocoa and the coffee 
trees. South America has furnished food 
plants for many other portions of the earth, 
and produces such a variety that the num- 
ber can hardly be computed. It is raising 
cotton, sugar-cane, and great quantities of 
maize and wheat. Argentina, for example, 
is becoming one of the greatest wheat-pro- 
ducing countries in the world, and Chili, 
long years ago, sent wheat to California. 

The immense herds of cattle and flocks 



South America 17 

of sheep in Argentina, Uruguay, and other 
countries in this continent, count largely in 
the world's commerce. 

These are merely hints as to the natural 
wealth and the possibilities of South Amer- 
ica, but they are sufficient to show that 
South America is destined to have a great 
development. 

Already a rapid development is in prog- 
ress. Much yet is faulty among the people, 
and there are many defective conditions, but 
marked improvement is going on, both of 
a material and a political character. The 
world is coming into closer touch with 
South America, and it is becoming more 
and more attractive and accessible to the 
4>eople of Europe and the other Americas. 
South America will have a great future. 



CHAPTER II. 
The; People of South America. 

Christopher Columbus, or Cristobal 
Colon, as the Spanish ;call him, was the first 
of the navigators of the fifteenth century 
to discover the continent now icalled South 
America. This, however, he did not dis- 
cover until his third voyage across the west- 
ern ocean. 

On the first day of August, 1498, he dis- 
covered and named La Isla de Trinidad, 
the island of Trinidad, so called in honor 
of the Trinity. Sailing around the island, 
he found himself in fresh water, which we 
now know was the mouth of the Orinoco, 
and soon he caught a glimpse of the main- 
land. 

In 1499 Alonzo de Ojeda, Amerigo Ves- 
pucci and Juan de la Cosa made the first sur- 
vey of the northern coast lands of the con- 
tinent. A few years later Amerigo Ves- 
pucci made a southern voyage along the 
18 



The People of South America 19 

east eoast for thousands of miles, and dem- 
onstrated that this western land was not an 
island or a series of islands, but a great con- 
tinent. In 1504 he published an account of 
his voyages, and his pamphlet, falling into 
the hands of a German professor, made such 
an impression on this man of science, that 
when, in 1507, he printed his Latin "Intro- 
duction to Geography," he said in this pub- 
lication : "The fourth part of the world hav- 
ing been discovered by Amerigo or Amer- 
icus, we may call Amerigee or America/ ' 
and so the Western Hemisphere, instead of 
being called Columbia, has been known as 
America. 

When Vasco Nunez de Balboa, in 1 5 13, 
demonstrated that the land west of Darien 
was an Isthmus, and for the first time saw 
the South Sea, and Hernando de Magallanes, 
in 1520, went through the strait at the south- 
ern end of the continent and discovered the 
great western ocean, which he called the 
Pacific, and it was found that Balboa's 
South Sea and Magallane's Pacific Ocean 
were the same, it was clearly understood 
that, not old Asia, but a new world had 
been discovered. 



20 South America 

Columbus supposed, however, and con- 
tinued to the end of his life, to believe that 
the western lands discovered were eastern 
sections of India. Hence he and the Span- 
ish adventurers who followed him, called 
the people they found in these countries 
Tndios, or, as English-speaking people say, 
Indians. 

The several tribes of Indios or Indians 
were found to have strong resemblances and 
yet marked variations. They differed in 
degrees of barbarism and in grades of civ- 
ilization. vSome of them were cannibals, 
while others had attained and maintained 
some degree of order and comfort akin to 
civilization, and a few nations, like the In- 
cas, had what is claimed to have been a high 
degree of civilization. These were the abo- 
rigines. 

The conquest of South America, at the 
close of the fifteenth and in the early part 
of the sixteenth centuries, forms one of the 
most brilliant, but at the same time one of 
the bloodiest, pages of history. 

The Spanish conquerors, or conquista- 
dores, as they are called, were characterized 
by bravery, lack of principle, and extreme 



The People of South America 21 

cruelty. Pizarro, the conqueror of Peru, 
was daring, but deceitful. His bravery is 
seen in his penetration of an unknown coun- 
try with a mere handful of men, while his 
deceitfulness and cruelty are illustrated in 
the unprincipled advantage he took of the 
trustful Inca, Atahualpa, whom he deceived 
and mercilessly murdered. He was a sam- 
ple of the Spanish adventurers who de- 
stroyed multitudes of innocent Indians and 
reduced others to most brutal slavery. 

With the coming of the Spaniards and the 
Portuguese, there began a new race. 

Most of the early Spanish and Portuguese 
adventurers were in the new country with- 
out wives or families, and in a little time 
they made wives of the Indian women. The 
result was a mixed race of Spanish and 
Indian, or Portuguese and Indian, and this 
mixed race rapidly increased and became 
more influential than the pure Indian, and 
much more numerous than the people of 
pure Spanish or Portuguese blood. 

Then, to mitigate the condition of the 
aborigines and to save the Indians from ex- 
treme suffering and extinction through the 
cruel form of slavery to which they had 



22 South America 

been subjected by the conquerors, Negroes 
were imported from Africa and reduced 
to slavery. 

This was brought about chiefly by the 
priest, Las Casas, who had a sort of half- 
hearted, but inconsistent, humanity. He de- 
sired to ameliorate the condition of the op- 
pressed Indian whom he pitied, but he would 
relieve the Indian by putting the Negro un- 
der the same oppression. His action was 
not a square ' recognition of the wrong of 
human slavery, but an effort to take the 
shackles from one to put them on the other. 

The introduction of the Negro had an- 
other effect besides that of merely relieving 
the Indians from harsh slavery, for the com- 
ing of the Negro resulted in a still greater 
mixture of races. 

The Spaniard and the Portuguese blended 
with the Indian, the Indian blended with 
the Negro, the offspring of Spanish or 
Portuguese with the Indian blended with the 
offspring of the Indian and the Negro, and 
the Spanish or the Portuguese intermarried 
with any or all of these blends, and thus 
made a very mixed population, as all these 
blends mixed with each other, making a 



The People of South America 23 

people neither Spanish nor Portuguese, and 
neither Indian nor Negro, and yet having 
characteristics of all. 

Altogether, the mass of people in many 
parts of South America are a peculiar blend 
and practically a new race, and this may 
be said without any reference to the coolies 
from India and China, who may be found 
particularly in the British possessions. 

Negroes and the strongly mixed races are 
very numerous in Northern Brazil, and are 
conspicuous also in Peru as well as in other 
countries in the northern and warmer parts 
of the continent. Travelers also notice in 
Peru persons with Chinese features. This 
Chinese type is a result of the introduction 
of many Chinese coolies or slaves who were 
brought to that country two generations or 
more ago. 

South of the tropical belt there are also 
distinct and numerous signs of mixed blood, 
though the mixture, probably, has not as 
many elements or the same proportions. 

Doubtless pure-blooded Spaniards and 
pure-blooded Portuguese may be found in 
many parts, as also others of pure European 
stock, but everywhere it is very evident that 



24 South America 

the European did not exterminate the In- 
dian, 

The Spanish conquistador killed the In- 
dians right and left, without compunctions 
of conscience, but in the course of the cen- 
turies the Indian has conquered the Span- 
iard. Indian blood has done what the In- 
dian braves [could not do, and almost every- 
where it is the Indian who looks at you, 
even when he speaks the Spanish tongue 
and bears a Spanish name. He may be called 
a Spaniard, but in his very blood he is held, 
and will be forever, by an Indian bond. 

The pure Indians still are very numer- 
ous, and the Indian type is very prominent 
even where the Spaniards and the Portu- 
guese have held sway. Thus in Peru, where 
the early Spanish adventurers and their suc- 
cessors had every advantage and crushed 
the spirit of the people when they did not 
their lives by the most exhausting slavery, 
the Indian and the Indian type are remark- 
ably strong. 

It has been estimated, indeed, that fifty- 
seven per cent of the present population of 
Peru is composed of descendants of the old 
Inca race. A traveler would say that sev- 



The People of South America 25 

enty-five per cent, or a greater percentage, 
is either pure or mixed Indian. 

The pure Spaniard is in a small minority 
of the general population of South America, 
and the Portuguese make a smaller per- 
centage. Sefior F. de Castello says: "My 
estimate is that barely one-third of the South 
Americans have Spanish blood in their 
veins, and that not more than one-half can 
be said to have Spanish as their mother 
tongue." 

Originally Indian, South America still is 
largely Indian, either pure or mixed. 

The people of South America are usually 
spoken of as a Latin people, but when we 
think of the various blends of Indian and 
Negro blood, and the small percentage of 
pure Spanish and Portuguese blood, a ques- 
tion may be raised as to the accuracy and 
propriety of calling the inhabitants of South 
America a distinctively Latin people. 

So the civilization of South America is 
spoken of as a Latin civilization. In a sense 
this may be permitted to stand, because the 
Spanish and Portuguese have dominated; 
but, in view of present facts as to population 
and the influences which history shows have 



26 South America 

been at work, even the claim of a Latin 
civilization may need considerable modi- 
fication. 

As a matter of fact, the ideas as to gov- 
ernment and civilization which the South 
American people have professed to follow 
for nearly a century, are not the old Span- 
ish or the old Portuguese, but those which 
have come from the United States of Amer- 
ica. The political ideas by which they pro- 
fess to be swayed are those which have had 
their birth and development in the United 
States, and, even if it prove to be true that 
these ideas still are largely ideals, neverthe- 
less they indicate Anglo-Saxon aspirations, 
and there are evidences that they are work- 
ing their way. 

About half a century ago there was in 
South America a great reaction from me- 
diaeval Latin ideas. The despotic domina- 
tion of Spain had become unbearable. It 
was crushing, not only to the Indians, but 
also to those who had SpanUh blood in their 
veins, whether pure Spaniards or their 
mixed descendants. 

Encouraged by the success of the English 
colonies in North America in gaining their 



The People of South America 27 

independence and forming the United 
States of America, the people of Spanish 
America longed for liberty for themselves, 
and the desire developed into an attempt 
to gain independence from Spain. 

In this effort, their first great leader was 
Miranda, who was born in Caracas. In 
Paris, Miranda met Lafayette, and with him 
went to North America, while the American 
Revolution was in progress, and became a 
member of General Washington's staff. 

Miranda's first expedition to free South 
America was fitted out in the City of New 
York, and contained American soldiers who 
had fought for the independence of the 
United States. I^ater, Simon Bolivar, the 
liberator, received much of his inspiration 
at the tomb of Washington, where, under 
the influence of Washington's memory, he 
swore to free his own country. 

The Argentine Revolution began in 1810, 
and other sections of the continent followed 
soon after. General San Martin, of Ar- 
gentina, was the liberator in the south, and 
General Bolivar in the north. The one 
worked from the south through Chili and 
Peru, and the other moved from the north, 



28 South America 

until they had their historic meeting at 
Guayaquil, after which San Martin retired 
from public life, and Bolivar, aided by San 
Martin's troops, ended the war. 

The revolution in Brazil was much dif- 
ferent in character, for that Portuguese 
country gradually glided from an imperial 
government into a democracy. 

The remarkable fact is that all these coun- 
tries, when they gained their independence, 
practically abandoned the old Latin ideas 
of government and copied the Constitution 
and legislative methods of the United States 
of America. 

The prevalence of a Latin religion and 
of tongues with a Latin derivation, are 
about the only things that can claim to be 
distinctively Latin, but even they have other 
elements besides the Latin. 

In recent years there has been going on 
what may be called the re-Europeanization 
of South America. It is a new invasion by 
peaceful immigration. As the years move 
on this re-Europeanizing process becomes 
more and more marked as the number of 
immigrants seems to increase in geometrical 
progression. 

A little of this process has been going on 



The People of South America 29 

for a couple of generations, but what was a 
trickling rill has become a mighty stream 
which promises to flood the land. 

Improving conditions tend to increase the 
tide of immigration. South America is de- 
veloping so rapidly in material things, and 
gives such promise for the future, that peo- 
ple in many lands have been strongly at- 
tracted and rapidly are being drawn to this 
southern continent. 

The English, Scotch, Irish, and Welsh 
have come. The Germans are found in 
some sections in great numbers, and they 
are represented in every commercial center. 
The American from the United States of 
America is found here and there, but the 
Americans exist in smaller numbers than 
th<; British or the Germans. Not a few 
of these people*' have settled down as per- 
manent residents, and many have inter- 
married with South Americans, so that it is 
quite common to see children of the land 
with the light hair and fair complexion of 
the English, the German, the Swiss, or the 
Scandinavian, and to hear them call them- 
selves by the name of the country in which 
they live. 



30 South America 

The Russian, the Austrian, and the 
French are found. The Basque, the Wal- 
densian, and the modern Spaniard have 
tome and are coming, but beyond all is the 
great tide of Italian immigration, which is 
mainly from the north of Italy. How much 
the Italian immigration mpans may be in- 
ferred from the fact that one hundred thou- 
sand Italians entered Argentina in a single 
year, and that in Buenos Aires more than 
fifty per cent of its population of over a mil- 
lion is made up of persons born in Italy or 
the descendants of Italians. 

All these elements are gradually but 
surely modifying the nature and character 
of the people of South America. It is a 
new blood making a new South America. It 
is a new invasion which is likely to make a 
new and better conquest. These modern 
conquistadores are of European stock, and 
are destined to re-Europeanize this southern 
continent and give it a new and better start. 
Given the moral and religion influences 
which are needed, there will be a mor- 
ally revolutionized and redeemed South 
America. 



CHAPTER III. 
The Reugion of South America. 

The religion of South America — what it 
was or what it is — is not to be decided by the 
decision of a national government, but by 
the actual facts. 

The religion of the aborigines was pagan- 
ism — paganism of different depths, but pa- 
ganism pure and simple. This Indian heath- 
enism was generally crude and rude, and, 
though here and there it made some pre- 
tense to a degree of refinement, neverthe- 
less it was very pagan. 

With the Spanish and Portuguese con- 
querors came Roman Catholicism./ Pope 
Alexander VI divided the new lands to the 
west between Portugal and Spain, and the 
intention was to make the new continent 
an extension of the papal dominion. 

The conquistadores generally were 
wicked and cruel in the extreme, but to 
some extent they observed the external 
31 



32 South America 

forms of the so-called religion of Rome. 
They were accompaied by the priest, and 
tjaey planted the material cross. 
^ It seemed an opportune time for the pa- 
pal despotism, for, only a few years before 
the discovery of America, Ferdinand of 
Aragon, in co-operation with wily eccles- 
iastics, had induced his queen, Isabella of 
Castile, to sign away the ancient liberties 
and independence of the Spanish Church 
to the extreme papal power, represented by 
the horrible Roman Inquisition. 

Thus, just at the time when the Spanish 
Empire was to be enlarged and enriched 
by the addition of vast territorial posses- 
sions, Isabel, who was to enable Columbus 
to make his voyage of discovery, introduced 
a force that was destined to undermine, dis- 
rupt, and destroy that empire. 

With Ferdinand the main motive was the 
hope of securing great treasure from recal- 
citrants, especially Jews, while with Isabel, 
the main motive was the unification of Spain 
which was Composed of many races 'with 
differing interests. Hence Ferdinand and 
Isabella obtained from the pope a bull for 
the re-establishment of the Inquisition in 



Religion of South America 33 

Castile and its reorganization in Aragon. 
Ferdinand wanted money and Isabella de- 
sired unity, and was willing to gain it 
through the aid of the cruelest machinery 
of the most bigoted bigotry. 

Thus it was the bigoted and bitter Ro- 
manism of the Dark Ages, intensified by 
the Roman Inquisition, that came to South 
America. 

The material cross was planted, but the 
spirit of Christ did not characterize the con- 
quistadores, and, generally speaking, neither 
did it the priests. Thus we remember that it 
was a priest who aided Pizarro in finding 
a pretext for the unrighteous execution of 
the Inca sovereign, Atahualpa. 

Violence was used to compel the abo- 
rigines to conform to the new religion, but 
even then the Indians secreted their idols, 
and in caves and mountain fastnesses, or 
other secret places, they continued to wor- 
ship their hidden, heathen gods. 

Where extreme violence was not used, at- 
tempts at compromise were made, and the 
old pagan temples were utilized as churches, 
the old idols being displaced by images of 
the Virgin and the saints, which would 
3 



34 South America 

easily be taken for idols by the Indians. 
Some customs also, to which the heathen 
Indians had been addicted, were adapted 
to the new religion and adopted by it. 

The paganizing process did not end here, 
for the pagan women, even if formally 
brought into the Roman Church, as well as 
those who may not have become members, 
doubtless paganized their children who were 
the offspring of the early Spaniard or the 
early Portuguese, and so the new genera- 
tion had a blending of Romanism and South 
American paganism. The mixing of the 
races mixed the religion, and this result was 
accentuated by the influx of pagan Negroes 
from heathen Africa, who added their form 
of pagan sentiment and practice. 

What Romanism had received from the 
paganism of imperial Rome was repagan- 
ized by the cruder paganism of ruder and 
uncivilized races in South America. Pagan 
America and pagan Africa combined 
further to debase the feeble remains of 
Christianity possessed by Romanism. 

What the heathen Indian and African 
did naturally, and perhaps unconsciously, 
was strengthened by crafty Romish priests, 



Religion of South America 35 

who, for the sake of gaining control of the 
natives, accommodated themselves to pagan 
superstitions and practices, practically 
adopting and incorporating savage supersti- 
tions and customs, as, for example, ancient 
Indian fiestas. 

It was comparatively easy to induce the 
Indian to accept the substitution of the 
images of the Virgin and the saints in lieu 
of his old idols, when this did not involve 
a radical change in his inner life, and it was 
an easy thing for the Indian to associate 
with the new image his old pagan ideas. 
Though the name of the idol might be 
changed, yet to the Indian an idol it would 
be and an idol it has remained. It is 
said that to this day the mixed Spanish 
and Indian do not realize what the Roman 
images mean, but worship them as idols. 

Instead of thoroughly elevating the In- 
dian, the Romish priest went down to the 
Indian's lower ideas and practices and com- 
promised, and, compromising, injured his 
religion which suffered from the reflex in- 
fluence. 

In this way, by the compromises of the 
Roman Church, and the unconscious and 



36 South America 

direct influences of the pagan in South 
America, Romanism in South America was 
further debased and repaganized. 

In some places, possibly along the coasts, 
this result may not be so noticeable to-day, 
for in the commercial centers the foreign 
population doubtless has had a restraining 
influence which has modified some of the 
externals of South American Romanism, 
but, back from the ;coast, there is strong evi- 
dence that the superstitions of Rome have 
been overlapped by the more savage super- 
stitions of the primitive Indian, and even in 
a coast city may be found similar signs. 

Many Indians who have been baptized by 
the Romish priests have no Christianity be- 
yond the baptism. But, while there are 
South American Indians who are Roman 
Catholics in form or fact, there are great 
masses of Indios Bravos, or wild Indians 
who still are as pagan as their ancestors 
who lived before the Spaniard ;came to 
South America. 

As a matter of fact, even that low type 
of South American Romanism has never 
covered the continent. Though its opera- 
tions have not been absolutely restricted to 



Religion of South America 37 

the coast, it certainly has not Christianized 
the center of the continent. 

South America still is largely pagan. The 
Rev. Alan Ewbank, a missionary in South 
America, says : "If you start away to the 
north and go right down to the south of 
the continent, you can travel in heathen 
lands, among people who do not know who 
God is. The whole of that southern conti- 
tinent, except the fringes around the edge, 
should be colored heathen." 

Sefior F. de Castello says : "In the heart 
of South America the majority of the in- 
habitants are pure Indians, and a very large 
percentage still use Quichua, Guarani, and 
Aymara. In the extreme south, there are 
also large numbers of unreclaimed Indians 
without anything Spanish about them. . . . 
Nearly seven millions of people in South 
America still adhere, more or less openly, 
to the superstitions and the fetichisms of 
their ancestors, having never submitted to 
any Christian ordinance; while perhaps 
double that number live altogether beyond 
the reach of Christian influence, even if we 
take the w T ord 'Christian' at its widest mean- 
ing." 



38 South America 

The Rev. W. B. Grubb, who has a mis- 
sion in the Paraguayan Chaco, says : "The 
tropical part of that continent is the great- 
est unexplored region at present known on 
the earth. It contains, as far as we know, 
three hundred distinct Indian nations, speak- 
ing three hundred distinct languages and 
numbering some millions, all in the dark- 
est heathenism/' 

The Rev. Alan Ewbank further observes : 
"In one of the parts that is labeled Roman 
Catholic, we have a missionary at work 
with hundreds of miles of heathenism 
around him. In whichever direction he 
looks, he can go hundreds of miles among 
people who absolutely worship not only not 
God, but nothing at all. . . . They don't 
even worship the Virgin Mary." 

With a paganized and repaganized Ro- 
manism, with vast areas unpenetrated by any 
form of Christianity, and millions of peo- 
ple as pagan as the primitive Indians, what 
is the religion of South America ? 



CHAPTER IV. 

What Romanism Has Done for South 
America. 

What has the Roman Catholic Church 
done for South America during the long 
period of about four centuries? 

It has done much more than can be nar- 
rated in a few pages. However, some 
things may be indicated. 

First, Romanism brought to South Amer- 
ica a perverted form of the Christian re- 
ligion. It contained some elements of that 
religion, but they were so mixed with and 
overlaid by that which was contrary to the 
pure and simple teachings of the gospel that 
the best that can be said for that Roman- 
ism is that it was merely a corrupted form 
of Christianity. 

Romanism brought the most horrible In- 
quisition which crushed many lives and 
39 



40 South America 

brought ruin to many others, suppressed 
free thought and free speech, destroyed can- 
dor and developed secretiveness and deceit, 
and its direful effects endure to this day. 

Romanism came among image-worship- 
ers and left them image-worshipers. For 
their idols it substituted other man-made 
images, and taught them to worship these 
new figures. It did not destroy idolatry, 
but merely changed the direction and object 
of the idolatrous worship. Millions of the 
people never were reached, and the natives 
who were touched were left idolaters, 
though with some change in the external 
form, with some new names, and, possibly, 
with some new ideas. 

Romanism gave erroneous ideas as to 
practical Christian living. The conquista- 
dores, generally speaking, utterly misrepre- 
sented the religion of Jesus, which they pre- 
tended to obey. On the contrary, these 
cruel conquerors displayed the darkest and 
deepest depravity of every kind, and the 
deported criminals from Spain did not add 
any purity to lighten the gloomy conditions. 
Indeed, the adventurers were rendered more 
lax by the fewer restraints of the New 



What Romanism has Done 41 

World where they had so easily become 
the masters. 

This was the kind of people who, at the 
beginning, exemplified Romanism before the 
simpleminded natives. Thus men who were 
proud of their deceit and cruelty gave the 
start to Romanism in South America, and 
this start had a force sufficient to deter- 
mine its future during the centuries that 
followed, and to a great extent neutralized 
the influences of successors who, possibly, 
may have been much better. 

Though there may have been priests who 
lived pure and consecrated lives, they were 
not able to change the general conditions. 
That there have been priests of improper 
purposes and lives is well known. 

The Rev. W. Hubert Brown, a mission- 
ary in Latin America, has declared that "a 
corrupting influence has been at work in 
the lives of monk and priest in those re- 
gions, an influence that has tended to vitiate 
in many respects the moral life of the peo- 
ple/' He speaks specifically also of "the 
corrupting influence that entered into the 
priesthood and into the monasteries owing 
to the increase of wealth and power." 



42 South America 

Shocking stories are told of the immoral 
lives of priests who continued to retain the 
respect and protection of the ecclesiastical 
authorities. There might be in any Church 
exceptional instances of moral lapses on 
the part of individual ecclesiastics, but they 
are the great exception in evangelical 
Churches, and are not tolerated. In South 
America, however, the common report is 
that these conditions are very general among 
Romish priests, and, though the facts are 
said to be well known, it is said that 
too frequently nothing is done to un- 
frock the guilty man. But these recitals 
are not absolutely necessary to establish the 
nature of Romanism. We may, indeed, ut- 
terly discard or deny them and yet make a 
complete case against the Roman Church 
from its beginning in South America. We 
do not assert how far the allegations may be 
true, but merely note that such affirmations 
are made in many places. 

Senor P. de Castello, an agent of the Brit- 
ish and Foreign Bible Society, has declared 
that : "South America is a priest-ridden con- 
tinent without family life, given to domestic 
anarchy, to religious bacchanals, to the wor- 



What Romanism has Done 43 

ship of grotesque images, to the practice of 
pagan or semi-pagan rites, and to the con- 
trol of a most profligate priesthood whose 
main business seems to be that shameful 
traffic in souls, for which they have attained 
world-wide notoriety, and by which the 
gospel of Christ has become a -byword." 

If half these phrases are half true, they 
reveal most deplorable conditions. If they 
are not true, how is it that such expressions 
are heard throughout South America, and 
that they are believed by men who were 
raised in the Roman Church and who still 
are counted by it ? 

These statements may seem strong, but it 
is said that even popes have been shocked by 
most reliable Roman Catholic testimony con- 
cerning the general priesthood of that 
Church in South America. In his encycli- 
cal letter of 1897 to the Roman Catholic 
Clergy of Chili, Pope Leo declared: "In 
every diocese ecclesiastics break all bounds 
and deliver themselves up to manifold 
forms of sensuality, and no voice is lifted up 
imperiously to summon pastors to their du- 
ties. The clerical press casts aside all sense 
of decency and loyalty in its attacks on 



44 South America 

those who differ, and lacks controlling au- 
thority to bring it to its proper use. There 
is assassination and calumny, the civil laws 
are defied, bread is denied the enemies of 
the Church, and there is no one to interpose. 
. . . It is sad to reflect that prelates, 
priests, and other clergy are never to be 
found doing service among the poor; they 
are never in the hospital or lazar-house; 
never in the orphan asylum or hospice, in 
the dwellings of the afflicted or distressed, 
or engaged in works of beneficence, aiding 
primary instruction, or found in refuges or 
prisons. ... As a rule they are absent 
where human misery exists, unless as paid 
chaplains or a fee is given. On the other 
hand, you (the clergy) are always to be 
found in the houses of the rich, or wherever 
gluttony may be indulged in, wherever the 
choicest wines may be freely obtained/' 

That a papal encyclical speaks so plainly 
is very conclusive proof that there have 
been most revolting conditions, and many 
boldly affirm that such conditions continue. 
If half of this is true, it is plain that Ro- 
manism in South America has not only 
given erroneous doctrinal interpretations, 



What Romanism has Done 45 

but also that it has failed to give a whole- 
some exhibition of practical Christianity. 

These facts provoke many questions and 
lead to many reflections. Thus it will be 
asked: What has Romanism done for 
morals in South America ? 

To begin, the exorbitant marriage fees 
of the Roman Catholic priests have re- 
stricted marriage and encouraged illegiti- 
macy. Thus, in Venezuela, more than one- 
half the children are illegitimate. 

There are in South America people who 
are governed by a high moral sense, but 
Romanism in South America has not de- 
veloped a high standard of moral living. 
On the contrary, immorality of the grossest 
description is prevalent, and there is a 
shamelessness even in public which is ap- 
palling. Even on the public streets of great 
cities there are most shocking immoral ex- 
hibitions, so that it is considered unsafe for 
a girl or a grown woman to go out without 
a male escort. In cities that boast of their 
progress, ladies are insulted in broad day- 
light by well-dressed men at the street cor- 
ners. Such things indicate a low state of 



46 South America 

morality. In the less-developed sections it 
is still worse. 

Lying is so [common as to be taken as a 
matter of course, but what other result 
could there be from an ecclesiasticism that 
tolerates so many misrepresentations on the 
theory that "the end justifies the means ?" 

What has the Roman Catholic Church 
done for the culture of the masses in South 
America? It has had its orphanages, but 
the major purpose has been to make and 
keep the children Roman Catholics. 

Effort has been made in the line of pub- 
lic education in South America, but it was 
not due to the Roman Catholic Church. Ro- 
manism founded some universities under 
the control of the priests and some Church 
schools under friars and nuns, but it has done 
little or nothing for popular education. The 
new educational ideas have not come from 
Romanism. They are essentially Protestant 
in their conception, even where the schools 
are managed by teachers connected with the 
Roman Church. Many of the teachers, 
however, have lost faith in that Church. 



What Romanism has Done 47 

In various countries, efforts have been 
made to follow the educational lead of the 
United States of America. Thus President 
Sarmiento, one of Argentina's greatest 
statesmen, brought American teachers to 
Argentina, and they inaugurated an excel- 
lent free-school system, which still is de- 
veloping finely. 

Notwithstanding these efforts, illiteracy 
still prevails to a great degree, for it is hard 
to overcome the influence of perverted cen- 
turies. Thus, in Brazil, eighty-four per 
cent of the entire population are illiterate. 
In Peru, with over 4,000,000 inhabitants, 
only about twenty per cent of the children 
of school age go to the primary schools. 
Even in Argentina, which is making gi- 
gantic strides, out of 925,000 children be- 
tween six and fourteen years of age, 400,- 
000 were not receiving instruction in the 
elementary schools. One report states that 
only forty-five per cent of the children of 
school age can be found in these schools. 
In other countries the conditions are worse, 
but, under the influence of the new inspira- 
tion, great improvements are being made. 

Romanism for centuries shackled the in- 



48 South America 

tellect of South America. The terrible In- 
quisition tortured the man who dared think 
differently from the Romish Church, and, 
since the days of the Inquisition, the power 
of the ecclesiastic has throttled free thought. 
It ought not to be deemed surprising that 
under such repression the nations are back- 
ward. Doubtless to-day an Inquisition of 
some form exists. It may not burn people 
at the stake, but it may scorch the mind, in- 
jure the reputation, and stand in the way of 
real advancement. The world may well ask : 
What has South American Romanism done 
for the advancement of the people of that 
vast continent? For example, What has it 
done for liberty and political progress? 

What its spirit has been may be illustrated 
by what it did when the Spanish colonies 
undertook to throw off the harsh yoke of 
Spain. Some individual priests were patri- 
ots and aided the struggling people, but the 
pope excommunicated all the patriots who 
took part in the struggle for freedom. 
Through the centuries the Romish Church 
in South America has been opposed to po- 
litical and intellectual liberty, and it has ex- 



What Romanism has Done 49 

erted itself in all possible ways to defeat 
every advance in these directions. 

Finally: What has Romanism done to 
spread gospel truth • throughout South 
America ? 

In the first place, it has not even spread 
itself over the continent, though it has been 
in South America about four centuries. It 
has not reached great multitudes, but has 
left the great heart of the continent and 
many other parts, as pagan as at the coming 
of the conquerors. Strictly speaking, it 
can not be said to have even covered the 
borders of the continent. 

Where it is it does not possess and main- 
tain pure gospel truth, and, therefore, has 
not imparted the true gospel, and could not 
be expected to spread what it did not pos- 
sess. 

It has opposed the entrance and work of 
those who brought the pure gospel of Christ, 
and it has tried to prevent the people hearing 
the missionaries who have had opportunity 
to proclaim the simple truth as it is in Christ 
Jesus. It did not do the work itself, and it 
would not let others do it. It interfered 



50 South America 

with freedom of speech and rights of con- 
science. 

It has opposed the free use of the Bible 
among the people, and both bishop and 
priest have prohibited the possession and the 
reading of the Bible, and, even in late years, 
have publicly burned the sacred Scriptures. 

Instead of the pure gospel, it has intro- 
duced ideas and methods on the most vital 
matters, which are entirely subversive of 
gospel truth, and, instead of teaching the 
people to worship God in spirit and in truth, 
it has taught them to worship idols under 
the form of various material images. 

These are some of the things Romanism 
has done for South America. The Roman 
Church in South America has been weighed 
in the balances and found wanting. Others 
must go in and do the work which it has 
failed to do. Others must carry to the peo- 
ple pure, elevating, and transforming gospel 
truth. 



CHAPTER V. 
South America as a Mission Fieu>. 

Is South America a legitimate mission 
field? That is a practical question and re- 
quires a positive answer.^ 
^Some say South America is a Christian 
country, and, therefore, we should not send 
missionaries to or sustain missions on that 
continent. That means that evangelical mis- 
sions should not be sent to Spain, or Italy, 
or any other Roman Catholic country, and, 
further, it implies that the Roman religion 
is a genuine Christian religion, and should 
not be interfered with. y r 

The objector to missions in Romish coun- 
tries is usually well-meaning, but, ordina- 
rily, has taken a merely superficial view of 
the subject. The Roman religion assumes 
to be Christian, and the objector, without 
much consideration, accepts it as such. 

A label, however, does not determine the 
quality of goods. To label a religion Chris- 
5» 



52 South America 

tian does not prove it to be such. To label 
a country with the title Christian does not 
make it Christian. In both cases the actual- 
ity is to be demonstrated by the facts. 

Is Romanism true Christianity? Does it 
fairly and accurately interpret the gospel 
of Christ ? While it says something of God 
the Father, and Jesus Christ, the Divine 
Son, does it not make Mary and the saints 
practically more impressive to the mind of 
the masses? When it does that, does it 
not practically, if not theoretically, put Mary 
before Jesus? When it presents the im- 
ages of the Virgin and the saints, and 
teaches the people to worship them, is it 
not guilty of idolatrous practices? When it 
puts penance in place of heart repentance, 
and confession to the priest in place of con- 
fession to God, is it teaching the pure re- 
ligion of Christ? When it practically 
teaches that salvation can be bought with 
money and that it has a right to grant in- 
dulgences for a stated figure, is it not pre- 
senting a false religion which no true char- 
ity tan call Christian? When it teaches 
that a man dying in his sins can be bought 
out of hell or delivered from purgatory in 
consideration of cash payments to the priest, 



As a Mission Field S3 

is that not neutralizing Christ's plan of sal- 
vation as set forth in the New Testament? 
Is it not immoral in that it tends to en- 
courage men to live in sin because they are 
taught that though they live and die in sin, 
their salvation can easily be secured for 
them after their death by money gifts? 
Can any system that does these things, and 
many others like them, be truthfully called 
Christian? Certainly not. Then how can 
any intelligent person call the Roman body 
a genuine Christian Church, or a Christian 
Church at all ? 

If Romanism is true Christianity, why 
should there be any Protestantism? The 
individual who objects to Protestant or 
evangelical missions in Roman Catholic 
countries, logically objects to Protestantism 
itself. If, on the other hand, he maintains 
the right and correctness of Protestantism, 
then he logically pronounces against Ro- 
manism and declares it is not a true Chris- 
tian religion. If Romanism is not a true 
Christian religion, then the Protestant, to be 
consistent with his own convictions, should 
seek to transform, purify, or destroy Ro- 
manism. 



54 South America 

Romanism calls itself Christian, and in 
some of its features it does resemble 
Christianity, but that does not make it gen- 
uinely Christian. A counterfeit note, so to 
speak, calls itself genuine, but that does not 
make it a good note to be taken at its pro- 
fessed value. The counterfeit, indeed, may 
have such striking resemblances to the gen- 
uine that many may be deceived thereby, 
but that does not make it genuine. So Ro- 
manism has some resemblances to the Chris- 
tian religion, but it is not genuine Christian- 
ity. If it is true Christianity, then Prot- 
estantism is not, but If evangelical 
Protestantism is true Christianity, then Ro- 
manism is not, and, if Romanism is not true 
Christianity, then Protestants ought to 
maintain evangelical missions in Roman 
Catholic countries for the purpose of pre- 
senting true Christianity to the people. 

We make a distinction between the Ro- 
man Catholic organization and individuals 
who belong to it. We may also admit that 
there are good people and good priests 
in the Roman Catholic Church, but they 
are good in spite of the false teaching and 
not because of it. So there are some good 



As a Mission Field 55 

and conscientious people among the heathen 
in spite of the teaching and practices of 
heathenism. In both cases they conform 
in some measure to the divine law God has 
writen in the human heart and conscience, 
but individual goodness among Romanists 
does not make the Romish system true, any 
more than a good man among the heathen 
makes heathenism true. 

Roman Catholics conduct missionary 
operations in Protestant countries and en- 
deavor to pervert Protestants. That being 
the case, Protestants have the same right to 
conduct evangelical missions in Roman 
Catholic countries, and try to convert Ro- 
manists. Indeed, Protestants must match 
and check these movements, or in course of 
time Protestantism itself must be check- 
mated. If this effort be monopolized by one 
side, the other side must suffer. 

With the essential opposition of Protest- 
antism to the corruptions of the Roman 
Catholic Church, it would seem that every 
real Protestant would wish to convert or 
have converted every Romanist in the whole 
world. 

All this argument might be on the as- 



56 South America 

sumption that the Romanism of South 
America is of the highest type, whereas, as 
a matter of fact, it is immeasurably lower 
than the Romanism of the United States of 
America, and many hold that the Romanism 
of so-called Latin America is the lowest type 
of Romanism in the world. 

One who well knows the type of Roman- 
ism in Latin America says : "We find there 
the very lowest and most degraded form 
of Romanism that can be conceived. Some 
European and American Roman Catholics 
who go there will not recognize it as their 
religion, but prefer to attend the Protestant 
Churches. ,, 

The question before us, therefore, is not a 
general one, as relating to all Roman Cath- 
olic countries, but a specific one, relating 
to South America. As it has a debased 
Romanism, then there is special need for 
evangelical missions in this important con- 
tinent. 

How much Christian light shines upon 
and into its people from this debased me- 
diaeval Church may be inferred from the 
remark of the Rev. W. T. A. Barber, of 
Cambridge, England, when he speaks of 



As a Mission Field 57 

"the vast South American Continent where 
but the dull light of an effete Romanism 
makes darkness visible/' 

But, even admitting that there is some 
Romanism in South America, it does not 
follow that it is a Roman Catholic continent, 
or, in any comprehensive sense, a Christian 
country. 

As a matter of fact, strictly speaking, and 
taking into view the whole continent, it is 
neither a Christian continent nor a Roman 
Catholic country. There is some Roman- 
ism, particularly along the edge of the con- 
tinent and in some portions of the interior, 
but, as has been shown, a large part of the 
{Continent still is pagan. 

There may now be found the primitive 
paganism which existed when the Span- 
iards and the Portuguese came, and in many 
places a paganism older than that of the 
Incas. Millions in vast sections of the con- 
tinent are as pagan as their forefathers of 
centuries ago, and some of the paganism 
is of the grossest kind. Surely these thou- 
sands of miles of territory and these mil- 
lions of people will not be called Christian. 



58 South America 

Neither will they be called Roman Cath- 
olic. 

/ Then there are other immense sections 
which may be called semi-pagan, where the 
people have been baptized and have con- 
formed slightly to certain external forms 
found in the Roman Church, but neverthe- 
less cling to the old paganism of their an- 
cestors. This vast territory also can not 
fairly be [called Christian. Can it fairly be 
called Roman Catholic? / 

Again, there is what may be called a 
paganized Romanism, where there is image- 
worship and the worshipers are idolaters 
just as really as the idolaters in India, China, 
or Africa, for in addition to image-wor- 
ship, ideas of the pagan Indians have been 
carried over into the Romish observances. 
Surely this is not Christian. 

With such facts before the candid in- 
quirer, he must conclude that at least a 
large part of this southern continent is not 
Christian, or even Roman, but pagan, and 
that its Romanism is not truly Christian. 
Yet some Protestants persist in calling 
South America a Christian country that 
does not need Protestant missions. Even 
natives of the continent know better than 



As a Mission Field 59 

that, as a Roman Catholic South American 
statesman, who resided in the United States 
for a time and saw the difference, said: 
/"What South America needs is Protestant- 
ism/'/ 

Indeed, whether we consider it as a non- 
Christian land or a continent afflicted with 
a corrupted religion which is nominally 
Christian, South America is as much a le- 
gitimate mission field as any other part of 
the world. 

Whatever its Romanism may be called, 
it has been in South America a terrible fail- 
ure. It has not done the work of a true 
Christian Church. It has failed to evan- 
gelize the continent, and it has failed to ex- 
ert a right influence upon those who have 
come within its reach and felt its blighting 
touch. The Roman Catholic Church in 
South America, in its present condition, 
never will and never can do the work. It 
must be done by Protestant evangelical 
Churches through their missions and mis- 
sionaries. 

There should be evangelical missions in 
South America because Romanism has 
failed to do the work of a true Christian 



60 South America 

Church ; because the Roman Catholics them- 
selves need the pure gospel which Protest- 
antism alone can give ; because pagan South 
America needs the pure gospel as much as 
any pagan land in the world ; because these 
missions are absolutely needed by the Span- 
iard and Portuguese, the Indian, the Ne- 
gro, and the mixed races ; because they are 
necessary to give Christian faith to edu- 
cated and intelligent men and women who 
were brought up under the instructions of 
Romanism, but have lost faith in the Romish 
Church and its teachings, and are drifting 
toward atheism. From gross superstition 
they are swinging to the other extreme of 
no faith at all. g/ 

Protestant missions are needed for Amer- 
ican and European Protestants who are res- 
idents of South America, in order to keep 
them Protestant and to prevent their chil- 
dren from being drawn into the vortex of 
Romanism. That this is a real danger must 
appear when we consider the force of num- 
bers on the other side and the social influ- 
ence of the Roman Catholic population. It 
is a sad fact that some of the most intense 
Roman Catholics in South America are the 



As a Mission Field 61 

descendants of European or American 
Protestants. Especially is this the case 
where Protestants have married Roman 
Catholics. Their children are quite sure to 
be Romanists. 

Another important reason for evangelical 
missions in South America is the fact that 
Protestant missions tend to restrain and re- 
form its Romanism. 

Romanism in the United States is better 
than Romanism in some other countries be- 
cause of the preponderance of Protestant- 
ism, and it is known that the presence of 
Protestantism in Roman Catholic countries 
has a beneficial effect upon the Roman 
Church. So Protestant missions in South 
America will tend and are tending to make 
a better Romanism. The only immediate 
hope for the reform and purification of the 
Roman Church is in the proximity of a 
powerful Protestantism. 

Finally, Protestant missions are needed to 
strengthen the morality of South America 
and to quicken and sustain the spirit of in- 
tellectual progress, both of which are needed 
to give the people health, comfort, and pros- 
perity. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Protestant Missions in South America. 

S- Protestantism entered South America 
at a very early day, but in the form of a 
colony rather than a mission. It was made 
up of French Huguenots, who sailed from 
France in 1555, and settled on an island in 
the bay of Rio de Janeiro. In 1567 the 
Portuguese, instigated by the Jesuits, 
slaughtered the Huguenots and destroyed 
the colony. 

In 1624 the Dutch took territory, includ- 
ing Bahia, in Northern Brazil, and carried 
with them some Dutch ministers, but, in 
1654, the Portuguese regained the territory, y 

Of direct missionary movements which 
now exist, the oldest is that of the Moravians 
in Guiana, but, as we have seen, Dutch Re- 
formed pastors were in the Dutch posses- 
sions at an early period. In 1735 the Mo- 
62 



Protestant Missions 63 

ravians began work in British Guiana, and, 
in 1738, they began missionary operations in 
Dutch Guiana. Various organizations con- 
nected with the Church of England began 
mission work in British Guiana in 1827 and 
1829. 

/French Guiana, which has a small popu- 
lation of about 26,000, is the only country 
on the South American Continent which is 
not occupied by Protestant missions, but it 
can be entered easily from British or Dutch 
Guiana. 

As the Guianas, in a sense, are European, 
because they are dependencies of European 
powers, we limit our view to what, in contra- 
distinction, may be called American South 
America. 

-'"'The first regular Church organization to 
send missionaries to Spanish and Portuguese 
South America was the Methodist Episco- 
pal Church in the United States of Amer- 
ica. As early as 1832 the General Confer- 
ence of this Church recommended its bish- 
ops and its Missionary Society to establish 
missions in South America. Under the au- 
thority of this Church, the Rev. Fountain 
E. Pitts went to South America, in 1835, 



64 South America 

and began some work in Rio de Janeiro, and, 
returning to the United States, recom- 
mended the establishment of missions in 
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and in Buenos Aires, 
Argentina. The next year the Rev. Justin 
Spaulding was appointed missionary to Bra- 
zil, and the Rev. John Dempster to Buenos 
Aires, and thus began what has become the 
largest evangelical mission for natives in 
South America./ 

At the present time it has missions be- 
ginning with the Isthmus of Panama and 
extending to Punta Arenas on the Strait of 
Magellan, and then up the Atlantic Coast 
and penetrating far into the interior of the 
continent. In other words, it has missions 
in Panama, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chili, 
Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and in Bra- 
zil, along the Amazon. 

For a considerable number of years the 
Methodist Episcopal missionaries were not 
permitted to preach in Spanish. Later it 
became possible, and, in 1867, the Rev. John 
F. Thomson began in Argentina to preach 
publicly in Spanish, and thus was started 
the Spanish work of the Methodist Episco- 
pal Church in South America. There was a 



Protestant Missions 65 

broadening of the Spanish work in 1870, 
but the period of its rapid development was 
not really reached until the year 1880. In 
considering what this Church has accom- 
plished among the natives, it must be re- 
membered how recent is work in their ver- 
nacular. 

The Portuguese work in Brazil was aban- 
doned in 1841 for lack of funds, but Brazil 
was entered again, in 1883, when the Rev. 
J. H. Nelson, acting in conjunction with the 
Rev. William Taylor, afterward missionary 
bishop for Africa, started work at Para 
and along the Amazon. A little later in 
1883, it was entered from the south by the 
Rev. Juan C. Correa, a native Portuguese, 
who had been converted in the Methodist 
Episcopal Church in Montevideo. 

In 1878 the Rev. William Taylor inaug- 
urated Methodist Episcopal mission work 
on the Pacific Coast. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 
started its work in Brazil in the year 1876. 
Its operations are important and successful. 
Combining the work of these two Meth- 
odist Episcopal Churches, which stand for 
the same doctrines and are similar in polity 
5 



66 South America 

and practical methods, Methodist Episcopa- 
lianism in South America represents by far 
the most extensive and most important work 
among the natives of this continent. 

As the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
South, was restricting its efforts to Portu- 
guese South America, the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church, in 1900, passed over its work 
in Southern Brazil to that body. 

The British Wesleyan Church, another 
kindred body, has missions in British Gui- 
ana, and is caring for the English-speaking 
Colored people who went from Jamaica to 
the Isthmus of Panama. 

The Anglican Church, represented by 
Bishop Every, of the Falkland Islands, has 
congregations in a number of the commer- 
cial centers where Britons are found, but 
the Church of England, as such, generally, 
if not always, limits its attention to the Eng- 
lish, and does not specifically undertake 
missions among the Roman Catholic na- 
tives, though one of the clergy in Buenos 
Aires has undertaken some work of that 
character. 

However, there are various Anglican Soci- 
eties that seek various races in South Amer- 



Protestant Missions 67 

ica. For example, the South America Mis- 
sionary Society, founded by the heroic Cap- 
tain Allen Gardiner, began work in Fuegia 
and in the Falkland Islands in 1844, and 
among the Indians in the Paraguayan Chaco 
in 1888, and among the Araucanian Indians 
of Southern Chili in 1894. This work 
among the Araucanians is aided also by the 
Canadian Church Missionary Association. 
The South American Missionary Society 
has work also in Buenos Aires, under the 
direction of the Rev. William C. Morris, 
who got his start among the Methodist 
Episcopalians of that city. It was the suc- 
cess of the missionaries in Tierra del Fu- 
ega that converted the celebrated Darwin 
to belief in and support of Christian mis- 
sions. 

The American Church Missionary Soci- 
ety, connected with the Protestant Episco- 
pal Church in the United States of America, 
has work in Brazil which it began in 1890. 
It has at its head Bishop Kinsolving, from 
the United States. 

The Scotch Presbyterians have congrega- 
tions in various places for the benefit of 
English-speaking people, especially the 



68 South America 

Scotch. Recently it has been doing some 
work among the natives. 

The Presbyterian Church of the United 
States has rendered valuable service in 
South America. It began work in Colombia 
in 1856, in Brazil in 1859, in Chili in 1873, 
and in Venezuela in 1897. 

The American and Foreign Christian 
Union, a non-denominational society, sup- 
ported by members of various Protestant 
Churches in the United States of America, 
more than fifty years ago established evan- 
gelical work on the Pacific Coast. Its work 
in Chili is said to have been started in 1850. 
These missions were generally, if not en- 
tirely, among English-speaking people, and 
mainly in the ports where such persons were 
found in the greatest numbers. Finally 
this society ceased its effort, and its work 
passed over to others. The most of it was 
in Chili, and this was turned over in 1873 
to the Presbyterian Board. The Rev. David 
Trumbull, an American who for many years 
rendered! great service under the above 
Union, started from the United States in 
1845 under the appointment from the For- 
eign Evangelical Society, and on January 



Protestant Missions 69 

4, 1846, preached his first sermon in Val- 
paraiso Harbor on board a vessel called the 
Mississippi, which had brought him from 
the United States. 

The Southern Presbyterian Church be- 
gan mission work in Southern Brazil in 1869 
and in Northern Brazil in 1873. The mis- 
sions of both these Presbyterian Churches 
have been quite successful, and in 1888 the 
two Presbyterian bodies combined their 
Brazilian work in one presbytery. The 
Presbyterian Church of Canada began some 
work in Trindad and Demerara in 1869. 

The Baptists are represented by several 
bodies in the South American work. Thus 
the Mission Board of the Southern Baptist 
Convention has mission work in Brazil, 
which was begun in 1882, and in 1904 one 
missionary had reached Argentina. The 
Missionary Board of the Baptist Conven- 
tion of Ontario and Quebec has a small 
work in Bolivia, which was started in 1898. 
The Plymouth Brethren, of England, have 
some workers in British Guiana, Venezuela, 
Ecuador, and Argentina. They are to be 
classed as Baptists. The Regions Beyond 
Missionary Union, also English, has some 



70 South America 

work in Argentina and in Peru. Its mis- 
sionaries are usually Baptists. 

Some First-day Adventists are found in 
Peru, and Seventh-day Adventists are found 
in various countries, but their work is not 
large anywhere. Indeed, the most the Sev- 
enth-day Adventists seem to accomplish is 
to give trouble to other missionary organi- 
zations by trying to disturb the minds of the 
converts in regard to the day on which the 
Sabbath should be observed. 

The Christian and Missionary Alliance 
has some workers in Argentina, Chili, Ec- 
uador, Venezuela, and Brazil. 

The x\ustralian Missionary Society has 
attempted some work. 

The Waldensian Church has been work- 
ing almost exclusively among Waldensians 
who have colonies here and there, but they 
are beginning to reach out a little toward 
the Roman Catholic population around 
them. 

Some of the missionaries sent out by the 
smaller societies or detached bodies, en- 
deavor to support themselves on the field 
by secular employment, and independent 
missionaries often try the same method, but, 



Protestant Missions 71 

not infrequently, with distressing experi- 
ences which drive them from the mission 
and mission work.,, 

The Salvation Army is found at work in 
Uruguay, Argentina, Panama, and British 
Guiana. Its workers are earnest, and they 
help special classes, but the Army has not 
the Christian sacraments, and can not do 
the work of a complete Church. 

Good work is done by the Seamen's 
Friend Societies in sustaining religious serv- 
ices for the sailors who come to various 
ports of this [continent, and many of the 
regular missionaries also keep up what is 
called "port work/' going out to the ships 
lying in the harbor and holding services for 
the benefit of the crews. 

Last, but not least, is the work of the 
American Bible Society and of the British 
and Foreign Bible Society. Their service 
is beyond calculation. The colporteur has 
traveled far and wide over a very consid- 
erable part of the continent, going where 
the missionary-preacher would not have 
been tolerated, and has sold or given away 
Bibles in great numbers. It has been esti- 
mated that a scouple of millions of Bibles or 



72 South America 

portions thereof have been scattered 
throughout South America. The Rev. An- 
drew M. Milne, D. D., who has been gen- 
eral agent of the American Bible Society 
for over forty years in South America, has 
been a most efficient worker in spreading 
Bibles and developing colporteurs into good 
gospel preachers. 

xThis looks like a pretty long list of soci- 
eties making missionary effort in South 
America, but it would be most unfortunate 
if the inference should be drawn that the 
ground is well covered and that sufficient is 
being done. This would be a false and dis- 
astrous conclusion, for the largest of these 
societies is represented by very few mis- 
sionaries, while the others are smaller in 
proportion, having only one, two, three, or 
four missionaries in the whole continent, 
and the aggregate of all is exceedingly 
small when contrasted with the mighty op- 
position which must be met, and when com- 
pared with the millions of people who need 
the help of evangelical missions. / 



CHAPTER VII. 
Thi; Rssui/rs. 

What have been the results of the pres- 
ence of Protestantism in South America ? 

Protestantism has been and is in South 
America, we may say, in three forms. There 
has been what we may term commercial 
Protestantism, what we may call intellectual 
Protestantism, and what is known as the 
evangelical Protestant mission. 

The Protestantism we term commercial 
is represented by European and American 
Protestants who are in South America for 
commercial or business purposes. 

While they are not missionaries, neverthe- 
less their presence does make the impres- 
sion that there is some religion besides the 
Roman Catholic, and as they are foreigners 
backed by foreign governments, they re- 
ceive a degree of respect which is an aid to 
Protestant sentiment. In many instances 
73 



74 South America 

such persons are very devout, but there are 
others who, while they may in some form 
maintain a protest against Romanism, at the 
same time, on account of the different en- 
vironments in the new land, abandon the 
religious habits of their old country, be- 
come indifferent to Church duties, and even 
give the Sabbath-day to business or to sport. 
Such persons need missions quite as much 
as the people of the country. 

Merely intellectual Protestantism is rep- 
resented by teachers, newspaper men, offi- 
cial representatives of Protestant govern- 
ments, and by intelligent natives who have 
revolted from the errors and corruptions of 
Romanism and reached the stage of mental 
protest, but who have not attained the evan- 
gelical religious life. 

These forms of Protestantism have had 
considerable intellectual influence against 
Romanism, but they have not to any great 
extent presented a spiritual Christian life. 

This had to be done by evangelical 
Protestant missions. What, then, have 
these missions accomplished in and for 
South America ? 

In the first place they have established 



The Results 75 

Protestantism as a religious life in the [con- 
tinent of South America. Protestant 
Churches, or Evangelical Congregations, 
as they are commonly called, are found in 
every South American country, unless 
French Guiana be excepted. They are in 
the great cities and in many of the larger 
towns, and, from these centers of influence 
the work has spread into smaller towns and 
villages and out into the rural districts. 

These congregations may be regarded as 
mere outposts, but, nevertheless, they are 
intrenched positions. They mean the occu- 
pancy of the territory by the advance guard 
of the evangelical army that must enter and 
take the country, drive out error, and, in 
a religious sense, free the people. The num- 
numbers in the field are small, but the strate- 
gic positions have been occupied. 

The entrance is the hardest thing. Now T 
a footing has been secured, and, with 
proper support, the rest should be compar- 
atively easy. The great need now is re-en- 
forcements and supplies. Let them be sent 
forward promptly, and a rapid advance can 
be made. 

It is difficult to secure an accurate state- 



76 South America 

ment as to the number of converts in the 
several missions. From many of the smaller 
Missionary Societies no figures are attain- 
able. In many instances there are only a 
very few members. Some bodies existing 
in several countries report an aggregate of 
perhaps three hundred members. Some so- 
cieties have only one mission station and 
one missionary, so the number of societies 
in the field gives no idea of the force at 
work. The Methodistic and Presbyterian 
bodies show the greatest strength in work- 
ers, communicants, and adherents among 
the natives, the work of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church and the other 
Methodist bodies being in the lead. One 
who endeavored to secure the statistics 
in 1900 could find only 30,469 communi- 
cants and 28,764 adherents in all the mis- 
sions in South America. Doubtless these 
figures were very incomplete, for they con- 
tained no figures from a large number of 
missions. But even if we had an accurate re- 
port, it would show an infinitesimal number 
as compared with over forty millions of in- 
habitants, but it is the leaven in the meal. 



The Results 77 

When we consider the effect of Protestant 
missions in South America, it should be re- 
membered that all the results can not be 
given in figures or presented in tabulated 
form. Influence and effects sometimes do 
not submit to the rules of arithmetic. Some 
of these, though they can not be calculated 
according to the addition or multiplication 
tables, are, nevertheless, of immense value. 

The first, and not least important, is the 
fact that evangelical missions in South 
America have protected many Protestants 
from the Romish influences by which they 
were surrounded. 

The missionary has followed the immi- 
grant and the commercial man and fur- 
nished them with services like unto those 
they had in the homeland. Missionaries 
have gone to the seaport, along the rivers, 
across the pampas, and up into the moun- 
tains in search of the endangered European 
or American. In the cities, on the estan- 
cias, at the mines, and at other points where 
colonies or individuals from Europe or 
America have settled, the evangelical mis- 
sionary has given them the pure gospel in 



78 South America 

the language of the home country, and, in 
this way have kept many from lapsing into 
Romanism or positive irreligion. 

Protestant missions have compelled many 
thousands in South America to open their 
eyes to the fact that there are other 
Churches besides the Church of Rome, 
which they had supposed was the only 
Christian Church. 

Protestant missions have given many Ro- 
manists a new and better view of Protest- 
ants and of Prosentantism, and this has had 
a beneficial effect upon many Roman Cath- 
olics who still cling to their old Church. 
They have learned that Protestantism is not 
the fearful monster the priests have de- 
picted, and that even Protestants may live 
genuinely Christian lives. 

The presence of Protestant missions and 
the preaching of Protestant ministers have 
introduced an infusion of evangelical 
thought which is gradually pervading the 
thinking of the educated classes as well as 
that of the masses, and that even among 
persons who do not attend Protestant serv- 
ices. 

Protestant missions have had an intellec- 



The Results 79 

tual effect, and have carried a liberalizing 
influence, not only among the plain people, 
but also among the rulers and into the 
legislatures of the various South American 
countries. 

The result is shown in greater and grow- 
ing religious toleration almost everywhere. 
When Protestant missionaries first entered 
the continent there probably was not a sin- 
gle South American nation that would per- 
mit public preaching by a Protestant in the 
language of the native people, but now it is 
permitted in almost every country. 

Bolivia, which inherited the bigotry of 
ancient Peru, of which it was once a part, 
has recently passed an amendment to its 
Constitution, which is intended to open Bo- 
livia to all religions. Before the amendment 
is made final, the Congress must repeat its 
action, but, as in the Senate, there were 
only four votes against it, and in the House 
only the same number of adverse votes, in 
both cases the votes of friars, it appears 
quite certain the Congress will reaffirm its 
action, and Bolivia will have religious toler- 
ation definitely declared in its Constitution. 

The old Constitution of Bolivia recog- 



80 South America 

nized the religion Catholica, Apostolica, 
Romana — the Roman Apostolic Catholic re- 
ligion — as the religion of the State, and so 
does the amendment to the Constitution, but 
the old article said the State prohibe todo 
otro culto publico, that is to say, prohibits 
all other public worship, whereas the amend- 
ments strikes out these words and in {heir 
place inserts permitiendo la libertad de 
culto, which in English is, permitting lib- 
erty of worship.* 

Even in Peru the spirit of religious lib- 
erty is asserting itself, and the probability is 
that soon this venerable Country, the seat 
of the old Inquisition, will grant similar 
religious freedom. 

Then, throughout all South America, pub- 
lic Protestant services can be held under 
the protection of the national governments. 
To bring that about is a great victory for 
evangelical missions. 

Protestant missions have led to various 



* Since writing the above, the Bolivian House of Dep- 
uties has unanimously voted in favor of religious freedom, 
and the Senate has adopted the same amendment to the 
Constitution, with only two votes in the negative, and thus, 
by the votes of 1905 and 1906, Bolivia proclaims religious 
liberty for all. 



The Results 81 

changes in the laws of the several national- 
ities. For example, through the influence 
of evangelical missionaries, great improve- 
ments have been made in the laws relating 
to marriage. The old laws recognized only 
the marriage performed by the priest, and 
the priest charged so much for the service 
that multitudes of those who were too poor 
to pay the fee, lived together without any 
marriage ceremony, and illegitimacy was 
common everywhere. Protestants who 
would not be married by a priest were also 
put to great inconvenience. Through mis- 
sionary influence the laws have been so 
changed that civil marriage is recognized.' 

Protestant missions have presented a 
higher moral standard. Through this influ- 
ence truthfulness has become more com- 
mon, and where missions are located moral 
impurity has diminished among the native 
populations. 

Protestant missions have greatly influ- 
enced the public pres^, and as a result the 
press in many instances has been outspo- 
ken in favor of better things. The presence 
of Protestants creates a sentiment which 
gives special encouragement to the liberal 
6 



82 South America 

papers, and, in recognition of this aid, the 
liberal editors show marked friendliness 
to Protestants and favor religious freedom, 
even when they do not identify themselves 
with evangelical Churches. 

Protestant missions have had a most po- 
tent influence in educational matters. 
Schools started and sustained by evangelical 
Churches have presented ideals and intro- 
duced methods which have been imitated in 
the national schools, and South American 
governments have appealed to Protestant 
missionaries to secure teachers and to aid 
them in efforts to perfect the State schools. 

Protestant missions have had a decided 
effect upon the Roman Church in South 
America, so that, where the missions are 
strong, Romanism has been compelled to be 
more circumspect and, we may hope, more 
faithful. 

Protestant missions have made an impres- 
sion upon the adherents of the Church of 
Rome, which is revealed in various ways. 
Thus, it is seen in .connection with things 
essentially Romish, and through which the 
priests developed great enthusiasm and pro- 



The Results 83 

duced profound impressions. For example, 
in the matter of public religious processions 
during the great fiestas, whereas a few 
years ago the processions on the streets 
were many blocks long, now they are so 
greatly diminished in length and bulk as to 
be a matter of comment, and we have seen 
men stand with covered heads when sup- 
posedly sacred symbols were carried by. 
These things may be regarded as straws, 
but they show which way the wind blows. 

Last and best, Protestant missions have 
been the means of bringing tens of thou- 
sands of the natives of South America out 
of the darkness of Romanism and super- 
stition into the light of gospel truth, and, 
what is more, securing conversions which 
are just as genuine as those of converts in 
Protestant countries, the genuineness of 
which is proven by manifest character 
transformations. 

"Can the people of South America be 
reached ?" That is a question which to-day 
is answered by congregations in nearly 
every country on the continent. In some 
places the congregations are small and in 



84 South America 

others large, varying as they do on account 
of the degree of effort and differing condi- 
tions. 

In Valparaiso the Methodist Episcopa- 
lians have a native Spanish Church with 
five hundred and fifty communicants and 
a congregation of sometimes seven hundred 
or more. In Buenos Aires this denomina- 
tion has another Church with a membership 
about as large, while in the same city it has 
several other Spanish congregations and 
also an Italian membership with a number 
of Italian preaching places. In Montevideo 
it has another large Church membership 
composed of natives. The Presbyterians also 
have a large Spanish membership in Val- 
paraiso. 

These are only a few instances out of a 
considerable number, but they show that 
the native people of South America can be 
reached and converted through evangelical 
missions. 

A further question may be asked as to 
whether these converts continue faithful. 
The inquiry is fair, and, generally, the an- 
swer must be in the affirmative. 

Do all converts in Protestant countries 



The Results 85 

remain faithful to the end? What, then, 
should be expected where the converts 
come out of Roman Catholic families, must 
break social ties, and must meet the open 
and insidious attacks of Romanism in 
strongly Roman Catholic communities, 
where nearly everything seems against 
them — society, business, and human affec- 
tion ? 

Under such trying circumstances it would 
not be surprising to find here and there an 
instance where a convert has succumbed 
to such terrible forces, or to find a large 
number who have yielded, but such peases 
seem comparatively exceptional. 

Generally speaking, the converts are quite 
as firm as average converts in Protestant 
countries, and the members generally live 
Christian lives and die Christian deaths. 

Considering the immense odds against 
Protestantism in South America and the 
comparative weakness of the efforts which 
have been made, the results may be con- 
sidered as constituting a relatively great 
success, and as indicating what may be 
done. 

These facts furnish the answer to the 



86 South America 

question: Can evangelical missions suc- 
ceed in South America? 

If a few missionaries with a compara- 
tively small outlay of money have accom- 
plished so much, and that mainly in about 
a single generation, how much more could 
and would have been accomplished if the 
evangelical missions in South America had 
been supported proportionately as well as 
missions have been in some other parts of 
the world ? 

If conditions had been more favorable and 
an equal amount of money and as many 
missionaries had been sent for missions in 
South America, there would have been a 
much better showing. If governmental con- 
ditions had been more favorable, probably 
there would have been many more con- 
verts. Thus, if, as in India, a Protestant 
British Government had controlled South 
America, doubtless the work would have 
been easier and the results more marked. 
Had an amount equal to the millions of dol- 
lars that have been put into Asia been put 
into mission work for the vast continent 
of South America, doubtless the results 
would have been still better. But this was 



The Results 87 

not done, and, so noticeable has been the 
difference in treatment, that nearly every- 
body understands what is meant when 
South America is commonly spoken of as 
"the neglected continent." 

Put as much money as Protestant 
Churches put into Japan, China, India, and 
other countries, into the many distinct na- 
tionalities of the great continent of South 
America, and it will be safe to prophesy 
that the results in South America will com- 
pare favorably with those in other countries. 
The other countries should not receive less 
than they need, but South America should 
receive as much as it needs, and that is im- 
mensely more than it ever has received. 

As it is, there has been practically a 
moral and religious revolution in South 
America in a little over a generation or 
within the active lifetime of missionaries 
still on the field. 

Surely we may say much has been done, 
and yet, considering the vastness of the 
field and the many millions yet unevange- 
lized, how little has been done, or rather, 
how much remains to be done. 

The difficulties that still exist are very 



88 South America 

great, but on the other hand, the encour- 
agements are very many. The strategic 
points have been occupied and evangelical 
religion has been intrenched. In addition, 
opportunities of the most interesting char- 
acter are opening among the Spanish and 
Portuguese, among the Indians, and among 
the mixed races, and Providence every year 
is bringing a new and vast population to 
this southern continent, and a people more 
easily reached by the pure gospel than the 
older inhabitants of Spanish-American 
blood. This is especially true of the Ital- 
ians from Northern Italy who are coming 
in great numbers. 

With the good who are coming, there 
are also the bad who must be transformed 
speedily, or else they will be a postitive in- 
jury to the developing continent. 

Put as much money and as many work- 
ers into the eleven or more countries of the 
immense continent of South America as 
are being put into comparatively small sec- 
tions of other continents, and marvelous 
results will follow, for the gospel of Christ 
has lost none of its power on the human 
mind and conscience. 



The Results 89 

Why should the whole continent of South 
America get only about one-tenth what is 
given to a single country in another conti- 
nent? Why should not South America have 
equal attention and support? The people 
are as important and hopeful as those of 
other lands, and the results will be equally 
valuable and permanent. From every point 
of view let the missions in South America 
be promptly and adequately sustained. 



CHAPTER VIII. 
Present Needs. 



Whii,e there are great encouragements, 
nevertheless much remains to be done in 
and for South America. As a matter of 
fact the conditions of the missions them- 
selves compared with the work to be done 
are distressing, and compared with the 
opening opportunities are apt to be de- 
pressing to those who carry the burden. 

The small number of missionaries and 
the inadequate equipment of the missions 
in buildings and various requisites show 
great lack of things primarily necessary. 
For example, many of the mission congre- 
gations meet in obscure rooms in buildings 
which are both unattractive and unfitted 
for public religious services, and yet they 
are expected to compete with great church 
edifices. 

Even the work of foundation-laying in 
90 



Present Needs 91 

the missions has not been completed, though 
the mission work has reached a position 
from which there may be a rapid advance. 
Compared with what there was, there 
has been marked progress; but, as com- 
pared with what should be done, many 
things are greatly needed. 
^The first need is that the Protestant peo- 
ple of the United States and Europe shall 
more accurately understand South Amer- 
ica. Little has been known, and less accu- 
rately, about this wonderful continent. Lit- 
tle information has been presented to the 
people, and even missionary conventions 
have been held without an address on 
South America. The people should be in- 
formed. 

k-The second need is more money, and 
that to a sufficient amount, but this is likely 
to come when Protestant people in other 
lands appreciate South America's needs and 
possibilities. Their money will follow their 
thoughts, and their interest in South Amer- 
ica will become intense when they learn the 
facts concerning its various countries. Mis- 
sionary Societies should emphasize the 
needs of South America and vote more 



92 South America 

money to meet them, and individual givers 
should get this continent upon their minds 
and consciences. Then both individuals 
and societies should remember that in this 
continent, and particularly in the centers, 
it costs more to live and carry on mission- 
ary work than in other missionary coun- 
tries. These facts should be remembered 
and the missionary gifts should be propor- 
tionately large. 

^The third need is men, and the right 
kind of men to be missionaries. 

Why do not more preachers ask to be 
sent to South America ? One reason is be- 
cause South America has been less adver- 
tised than other countries, and, because 
other fields have been presented to their 
minds, they turn to them. More should 
realize how much South America needs the 
gospel. Students in colleges and in theo- 
logical seminaries should have their atten- 
tion turned toward this field, and the pupils 
in the Sunday-schools should be told about 
South American missions. 

The men needed in South America are 
consecrated men. They should be devoted 
to the work of the ministry. With the 



Present Needs 93 

call to preach and the opening opportunity 
they should have a strong conviction as to 
their duty. They should be self-sacrificing 
men, though the actual sacrifices may not 
be as great as they might imagine. They 
should be intelligent men with a fair de- 
gree of scholarship. They should be ca- 
pable men. They should be men of action, 
and not mere dreamers. They should have 
ability to lead and power to push. They 
should not say manana — to-morrow — but 
to-day and now. They should be good 
speakers, for a forceless speaker can not 
impress. They should be successful men. 
Men who are failures at home can not be 
expected to succeed in a foreign-mission 
field. The foreign field needs the best men. 
They should have a positive, personal, re- 
ligious experience. They should be pre- 
pared men who know the gospel and have 
mastered a preaching theology. All other 
things being equal, the best educated men 
will have the greatest success, but some of 
the other things are more important than 
certain touches of mere educational polish. 
Some knowledge of at least elementary 
Spanish before he starts from home will 



94 South America 

give the missionary a good start when he 
reaches the field. 

^ The fourth need in South America mis- 
sions is enough church edifices to house the 
congregations. A person bred in a Roman 
Catholic country is educated to look for a 
structure with an ecclesiastical appearance, 
and it is hard for such a person to regard a 
storeroom, a hall, or a little room in a pri- 
vate house, as a church. To get and hold 
such persons requires church buildings. 
They need not be extravagant, but they 
ought to look like churches. 
^The fifth need is the ownership of 
school buildings. In Roman Catholic coun- 
tries the school is an important adjunct to 
evangelical work, for people who will not 
send their sons or daughters to a public 
service in a Protestant Church will send 
them to a good school under evangelical 
control. 

The property question is exceedingly im- 
portant. The ownership of Church and 
school property will save a large amount of 
money which every year is absorbed by 
rentals, will make the Church independent 
of Roman Catholic landlords and landlords 



Present Needs 95 

of every sort, and will convince the people 
that the mission has come to stay. 

People are not likely to break away from 
fixed institutions to identify themselves with 
that which has an uncertain tenure. Hence 
they must be convinced that the evangelical 
mission is reliable and permanent To pro- 
duce this conviction is absolutely necessary, 
and nothing will produce it like the own- 
ership of real estate. Land and buildings 
are tangible evidences, which are easily and 
quickly understood by all classes. 

The sixth need is abundant provision for 
educating on the field young men who are 
called to the ministry. . 

There must be raised up a native min- 
istry, but few men of this class can or should 
go to a foreign country for their education. 
Their preparation for the ministry must 
be made in their homeland. Theological 
seminaries of a modest sort should be estab- 
lished at convenient points, and, to insure 
their efficiency and success, there should be 
endowments to pay the professors and to 
support the students until they have finished 
their course, and also to meet other neces- 
sary expenses. 



96 South America 

The seventh need is good and cheap evan- 
gelical literature in the language of the peo- 
ple. 

The mission press may be made a great 
power for good. The people must be made 
a reading people, and to do this they must 
be supplied with good papers and helpful 
books. The printed page is a quiet but 
eloquent preacher, with more patience than 
is possessed sometimes by the living 
preacher with weary muscle and over- 
strained nerve, but both can work together. 

To supply these books and papers, there 
is needed a literature fund that will defray 
the expense of producing, printing, and cir- 
culating literature for the masses of the peo- 
ple, and many of the preachers are too poor 
to purchase books and papers, and, ordi- 
narily, and probably for many years, the 
sales will not pay expenses. 

The eighth great need is that something 
unusually liberal should be done at once. 

"Now is the accepted time" even for 
South America. Let the Church give largely 
at the present time, and the missions can 
be put in condition to need less in the fu- 



Present Needs 97 

ture. The situation in South America at 
the present moment is such that a large gift 
now will accomplish more than a much 
larger gift after awhile. "Now is the day 
of salvation" for South America. Now is 
the time for vigorous action. 



CHAPTER IX. 
Whoss Spbciai, Duty? 

WhosS special duty is it to evangelize 
South America? Who are able to do it, 
and who can do it most conveniently? 

It is the duty of Protestant countries to 
do this work according to their ability and 
opportunity. Only the people of such coun- 
tries can be expected to possess any dispo- 
sition to introduce evangelical thought into 
other lands. All such countries may do 
something, and Great Britain and Germany 
have had such close and profitable 
commercial relations with South Amer- 
ica that they owe to that land in- 
tellectual, moral, and religious aid. 
Great Britain, however, has India and other 
territorial possessions where heathenism and 
other false religions require her missionary 
effort, and Germany, likewise, has heathen 
possessions that need Christianization. 
98 



Whose Special Duty 99 

The United States of America has little 
territory of this character. The United 
States, therefore, is freer than any of these 
other nations to care for the South Amer- 
ican field. 

Further, the United States is related to 
South America more closely than any other 
great Protestant power. First, the United 
States is in the same hemisphere as South 
America, and the proximity of the United 
States carries with it a peculiar responsi- 
bility. It is only six days from New York, 
and only three days from New Orleans to 
the Isthmus of Panama, which is in South 
America, and faster steamers soon will re- 
duce the time. 

The relation of the United States to this 
southern continent is very close, and is be- 
coming closer every day. The natural rela- 
tion between the two continents of the West- 
ern Hemisphere was clearly perceived by 
American statesmen in the first quarter of 
the nineteenth century. They saw that the 
condition of the South American countries 
was of great importance to the United 
States, and, hence, the promulgation of the 
Monroe Doctrine. 

L.OFC. 



100 South America 

The Monroe Doctrine is the political rec- 
ognition of a responsibility of the United 
States toward South America because of its 
proximity and because of the ability pos- 
sessed by the United States to aid. Log- 
ically, this interest should not be limited 
to the protection of the political inde- 
pendence of the South American republics, 
for back of the question of government are 
questions of morals, and back of morals are 
religious ideas. Crude or perverted moral 
perceptions among a people will result in 
bad government, no matter what may be 
the framework of the political system, and 
incorrect conduct and bad government will 
affect not only the country itself, but also 
countries with which it comes into commer- 
cial or international contact. 

South America is an America, and what 
affects one America will more or less af- 
fect every America, and especially as means 
of communication become better. So con- 
ditions in South America will affect the 
United States of America, and wrong condi- 
tions in the southern continent must bring 
difficulties to the United States. It is there- 



Whose Special Duty 101 

fore, to the interest of the United States to 
have an intellectually elevated and righteous 
South America. 

As a nation the United States Govern- 
ment should not and can not intervene in 
purely moral and religious matters, but 
there are many ways in which a moral influ- 
ence may legitimately be exerted. 

What the government of the United 
States can not do, the Christian people of 
the United States may and should do in a 
friendly way. While the Monroe Doctrine 
is the assertion of national responsibility and 
purpose, the Protestant people of the United 
States should recognize, and, by their evan- 
gelical missions, practically admit and assert 
their special responsibility for the moral and 
religious welfare of the people of South 
America. 

The Americas form the most important 
mission field for the Protestant people of 
the United States, and the greatest foreign 
mission field of all the Americas is South 
America. 

The responsibility for the evangelization 
of South America will not and can not rest 



102 South America 

upon the people of any other nation as it 
presses upon the people of the United 
States. 

On the other hand, to the people of the 
United States of America, South America 
is open as it is not to the people of any other 
nation. South America is adopting Amer- 
ican ideas. It caught its hope of independ- 
ence from the North American Republic. 
From the United States it received the 
model for its constitutional governments. 
From the United States it has secured teach- 
ers and improved educational systems. So 
South America presents the opportunity, 
and the Protestant people of the United 
States possess the ability to enter and help. 
For the evangelical people of the United 
States there is no mission field so im- 
portant and promising as South Amer- 
ica. Nowhere else outside the Americas 
is the call of duty so strong and so pressing. 

We have suggested an argument based 
on proximity. The United States is nearer 
South America than is any other Protestant 
nation. Let us strengthen the argument by 
the fact that the United States is actually 



Whose Special Duty 103 

in South America, and is itself a South 
American power. 

The United States is an occupant of South 
American soil. Its flag is there, its govern- 
ment is there, its civil officers are there, its 
courts are there, and its military and naval 
forces are there. It is there with an un- 
ending lease for which it has paid, and it is 
digging the canal across the Isthmus of 
Panama for the benefit of the United States, 
for the benefit of Central and South Amer- 
ica, and for the benefit of all the world. 

On the Isthmian Canal Zone it is not 
only a power in South America, but it has 
become a South American power. So the 
argument from proximity becomes still 
stronger, and the evangelical people of the 
United States must give an affirmative an- 
swer to the old question, "Am I my broth- 
er's keeper?" and aid the people of the great 
continent to the south, and, particularly, 
care for the moral and religious welfare of 
the Isthmus of Panama. 

Again, it is the duty of the Protestant 
people of the United States to seek the 
moral and religious regeneration of South 



104 South America 

America, not only for the good of the South 
Americans, but also as a matter of self- 
preservation for Protestantism in the United 
States. 

Protestants in the United States flatter 
themselves that Protestantism is and always 
will be overwhelmingly strong in the United 
States, but, on the other hand, Roman Cath- 
olics boldly assert that they yet will become 
the controlling power in this nation. 

Now, consider a few facts. The Roman 
Catholic Church in the United States has 
had its numbers greatly augmented by im- 
migration from Europe, by the influx of 
French Canadians, and by the recently ac- 
quired Spanish territory. Now, compute 
the millions of Protestants and the millions 
of Roman Catholics in the United States. 
Then add to the Roman Catholics say fifty- 
seven to sixty millions* of Roman Catholics 
in Central and South America, and in addi- 
tion to the one side add the Canadian 
Protestants, and to the other the Canadian 
Roman Catholics, and it must become ap- 

*The population of South America, in 1900, was about 
thirty-nine to forty millions and of Central America 
about seventeen millions. Since then there has been a de- 
cided increase. 



Whose Special Duty 105 

parent that Protestantism is not the over- 
whelming body in the Western Hemisphere 
that some have so fondly imagined. 

What shall the Western Hemisphere be ? 
Shall it be Protestant or shall it be Roman 
Catholic? If Protestants do their duty, it 
will not be Roman Catholic. If they fail 
to do their duty, it will be worse than a 
problem they will have to face. It will be 
a disaster of appalling proportions. 

Roman Catholics are earnestly, diligently, 
and patiently endeavoring to weaken and 
destroy the Protestantism of the United 
States. They are so persistent and patient 
that they can wait a century or centuries 
to accomplish their purpose. Individuals 
may die, but the hierarchy and the ecclesi- 
asticism continue. The very nature of the 
papal organization makes inevitable the ef- 
fort to Romanize the United States and the 
whole Western Hemisphere. Romanism 
means war to the death against Protestant- 
ism. 

So, while Protestantism must defend it- 
self in the United States, it must also, in 
sheer self-defense, penetrate South Amer- 



106 South America 

ica and spread evangelical truth and the 
Protestant spirit. 

Romanists seek to convert Protestants in 
Protestant countries, and, consequently, de- 
bar themselves from making any valid ob- 
jection to Protestant efforts to convert Ro- 
manists in Roman Catholic countries. 

The Protestant people of the United 
States must spread evangelical Protestant- 
ism because it is right to do so, and because 
it is their special duty. 

What shall be the moral and religious 
condition of South America is vitally im- 
portant to the United States. It is mainly 
an American problem and Americans must 
work it out. For both patriotic and Protest- 
ant reasons the work must be done by evan- 
gelical Americans. 

Other parts of the world should be re- 
membered, but South America should not 
be neglected. Protestant missions in India 
are right and should be sustained. They 
are doing the work of the Christian Church 
and of the British Empire, to which it be- 
longs, but Protestant missions in South 
America are doing, not only the work of 
the Christian Church, but also doing a vi- 



& 



Whose Special Duty 107 

tally important work for the United States 
and the whole Western Hemisphere. 

South America is an America, and the 
greatest foreign mission field for the evan- 
gelical people of the United States is South 
America. South America is rising in im- 
portance and increasing in influence, and it 
is the special duty of the evangelical people 
of the United States to help make it a bene- 
ficent influence. Let them rise and do their 
part ! Let the evangelical world remember 
and help South America! 



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